Towel dispensing apparatus



Jan.y 30,/ 1940.

R; c. KETTLE-s, JR 2,188,660 TowEL DIsPENsING AARATus l Filed Aug. 9. 1938 y Patented Jan. 30', 19,40y

UNITED STATES PATENT :OFFICE 2,188,660 TOWEL msPENsING APPARATUS Richard o. Kettles, Jr., Glen Head, N. Y.

Application August 9,

y k .l v 3 Claims.

The invention relates to a towel dispensing apparatus for dispensing inter-folded towels or inter-folded material.y More particularly, the invention has for its object the provision of a dispensing apparatus for paper towels, which will be exceedingly lcheap and inexpensive to manufacture and which will be of such construction that it will not be likely to giet out of order when in use.

The present invention furthermore has for its object the provision of an improvement and modiflcation of the construction of a dispensing apparatus shown in my previous Patent No. 2,092,168, dated September 7, 1937.

A viurtherobject of the present invention re- Sides in the provision of ya dispensing device for inter-folded paper towels which will tend to prevent towel wastage by providing` a barrier of multi-blade type which may be manually operated by the towel user pushing on-one blade to thereupon intermittently rotate the multi-blade barrierand rock one blade away from a position ,in which it blocks access to a towel vedge and to bring the following blade up back of the towel to deflect it to accessible position, which blade then serves as a barrier preventing access to the de-.

pendingedgeof a following towel.

A further object of the present invention resides in the provision of al dispensing device of atypedescribed with-blocking means adapted to prevent retrograde movement of the multi-blade barrier, which blocking means also is larranged to imparta certain degree of'resistance to the manually induced intermittent rotation of the 3 barrier. l f

A further object of the presentinvention is to improve the construction of? the dispensing. apparatus shown in my Patent No. 2,092,168, and to provide'a multi-bladed barrier in lieu'oi ther plate-like barrier of. said patent. AThe multibladed barrier is of such formthat the barrier itself may be manuallyfmanipulated by the towel user. In this way the use` of al separateoperating push button kmay be dispensed with. A furtheruobject of lthe present invention resides in the provisionv of a .supporting shelf for supporting a stacks-oi inter-folded'towels, which shelf has a novel conguration whichv affords a certain amount of resistance Ato vthe withdrawalI of a towel whereby one by onev delivery, of the towels is afforded. s l s A further objectjof the present invention resides in the provision-of an .aperturedbarrier for a towel dispensing apparatus.l

Further and otherf'objects'of the present invention will be hereinafter set forth inthe accompanying speciiication and` claims' and' shown in the 'drawing'which shows by way of illustration a preferred embodiment vand the principle thereof and what I now consider to be' the best mode l 1938, serial No. 228,808

in--which I have contemplated of applying that principle. Other embodiments of the invention employing the same or equivalent principle may be used and structural changes made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention and within the spirit of the appended claims.

In the drawing: Figure 1 shows a front View of a towel dispensing cabinet equipped with my improved dispensing device. In this view certain parts of the housing kfor the blocking mechanism are broken away to yshow the interior construction.

Fig. 2 is a detail sectional View taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1; l

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but showing the barrier in a moved position with a leading towel edge accessible for withdrawal.

In more detail in the drawing, the cabinet generally designated vlll may be of any desired coni struction. For example, it maybe of the general form shown in my Patent No. 2,092,168.

Such cabinet provides a supply magazine li for a stock of inter-folded towels I2. The arrangement of the bottom ledges oi the magazine is. such that the lowermost towel has its end depending downward in the position shown in Fig. 2 and extending through the towel outlet at the bottom of the magazine.

As is customary with inter-folded towels when one towel is withdrawn, ther leadingedge of the following towel will be drawn down and ultimately assume the position of the'leading edge oi the preceding towel, that is, it will have theleading edge extending out through the bottom outlet of the towel magazine. v

The bottom ledges of the magazine or supporting shelves for the towel stack vare designated 25 and 26 in Figs. 2and 3. The shelf 'or bottom ledge 26 is provided `with an upstanding transverse beading generally designated 2l in Fig. 2. Such beading upon the back sloping shelf provides a resistance creating ledge whereby there is a certainadditional amount of resistance to the slidable withdrawal of one towel over the otherwise smooth sloping bottom of the magazine. Ihis supplemental resistancey or drag prevents l the following towel from being drawn out too far upon the withdrawal of arpreceding towel and materially improves the operation by ensuring l one by one towel delivery.

Pivotally mounted at the bottom of the cabinet is a combined barrier and operating member. This member is preferably'a spider-shaped member M of multi-blade type having radiatingblades or iins. The blades are respectively designated Ida, I4b and Mc". The member I4 may be piv-` oted at one side in theside wall of the cabinet and at the other side it may be pivoted ina housing l5 which with the other wall of the cabinet, is

adapted to house the blocking mechanism which will be hereinafter described.

I'he disposition of the spider-shaped member IG across the bottom of the cabinet is such with respect to the towel outlet that one blade such as ida (Fig. 2) normally assumes a 'position in front of the leading edge of a towel depending through the outlet and eifectively blocks manual 'access thereto. When a user desires to gain access to' 'such `towel Such user pressesV downwardly and inwardly upon another blade such fa's I 4b. To apprise the user of the manner of manipulation of the dispensing device each of the blades may carry cn its face a suitable legend such as Push or Push here v(see Fig. 1). Upon pushing downwardly and inwardly upon blade Mb intermittent rotary motion is imparted to the member it. Blade Illa is thereupon displaced forwardly in the direction of the arrow (Fig. 2), moving away from the towel edge and rendering such towel edge accessible. The following blade itc also moves in an anti-clockwise direction, finally assuming the position shown in Fig. 3. In such position the blade itc gets in back of towel edge and deects the towel edge somewhat forwardly, rendering it easily accessible for manual withdrawal. The towel may be then drawn out by the user and upon the drawing out of one towel the leading edge of the following towel will extend down back of the barrier (i. e. the relation of the new towel will be that shown in Fig. 2). Operations may now be repeated.

In order to prevent undesired free spinning of the spider-shaped member and to block its retrograde motion and to compel intermittent forward rotation in one direction only under. a certain degree of resistance, vI provide a blocking means which will now be described. The shaft or right hand pivot of the spider-shaped member I4 extends through the Wall of the housing I5 and has secured thereto a spider-shaped heartshaped cam member It. Cooperating with this cam member is a pawl Il preferably pivoted on the wall of the housing at E8 and guided. by a bracket i801.. Between the pawl and the top of the housing is a compression spring I9. The pin provided on the pawl and the spring mounted on the housing prevent dislodgement of .the compression spring. Uponv manual actuation of the carrier the pawl i1 is cammed up against the tension of the spring. This camming action rst imposes some resistance or drag against the motion of the barrier. After the point or nose of the pawl passes the point of one load ofthe heart-shaped cam the pressure of the pawlin` duced by the compression spring tends to driver Ac-` the barrier forward to the next position. cordingly, the user of the device must actuate the barrier manually part of the way against the tension of the pawl spring and thereafter movement of the barrier is automatic under the action of the ystored power in the pawl spring. By reference to Fig. 3, it will be seen that the tip or nose of the pawl is somewhat above the centerline through pawipivoted i8 and the axis p of the spider-shaped heart cam and the spidershaped barrier member. With the parts in this relation the pawl is adapted to block retrograde (clockwise) motion of the spider-shaped barrier.

The foregoing construction affords an extremely simple and inexpensive towel dispensing apparatus which will discourage towel wastage, which will compel the user to manually shift the intermittently 'rotatable barrier every -time Y it is necessary to gain 'access to a towel. The .Y

use of separate push buttons is obviated A minimum number of operating parts are required andthe construction is durable and not likely-to'.v

get out of order when in use'. y i l n While I have shown a blocking mechanism within a housing l5 at one'v end of the barrier. it

isobvious that such blocking mechanism-may be duplicated at the other end of fthe barrier."v

However, such duplication is generally unnecessary since one blocking mechanism is suflicient to provide the required control over the operations of the multi-blade barrier.

2B. depending end ofa towel maybe seen. through the barrier and permit inspection of advertising'.`

matter or indicia which may be provided oneach of the towels.

While I have shown a three-bladed typev of multi-bladed barrier, my invention is lnotlimited to any particular number of blades on lthe Less or more than three*Y blades may barrier.

be provided by making corresponding changes in the related'structure which will befself-evident to those skilled inthe art.y

I claim: l

l.` In an Ainter-folded toweldispensing appa-;

ratos a cabinet providing a supply magazine with an outlet at the bottom through which.v towels may be successively-withdrawn and including ink combination therewith av multi-bladed spider--. shaped member having a pluralityof'radiating blades pivotally mounted in the cabinet below` the toweloutlet'and mounted for intermittent rotary motion, one, of the blades of said mem-yf ber being disposed to normally block manual access to a towel dependingV thrcughthe outlet.. said blade upon intermittent rotary Vmotion 'of said member, produced by manual actonuponanother blade, being -displaceable to a positionv renderingI vsaid towel edge laccessible for. manual withdrawal and a furtherblacle upon interr'nit-` `r tent rotary motion with the spider-*shaped mem. ber adapted toy deflect said towel edgeforwardlyl and thereupon serving as a barrier preventing access to the leading ,edge of a lfollowing towel. and blocking means 'cooperating with the spider-y m shaped member to compel intermittent motion in one direction only.

2. The invention according4 to claim l, where-Q l in the blockingmeans comprises a spider-shapedn heart cam member which is secured to the spidervshaped multi-bladed member, saidblocking meansv further comprising a spring pressed .pawl coop-` erating with the spider-shaped cam member to` afford*l resistance to forward intermittent rotary the muiti-bladed. member..l ,y y

3. .The invention accordingto claim i, wherein the blocking'means comprisesa .spider-shaped motion and for preventing retrograde motion `of heart cammember connected tolthespider-shaped multi-bladed member, sai-d blocking. means further comprising a pawl cooperating., with thecam member and pivotally mounted'in such relation that the nose ofthe pawl lis disposed away from a center line through 'the' pai'yl` pivot and the axis ofthe vspider-shaped.heart l 'cam member for preventing. retrograde motion ofthe multibladed member. h. f h f "RICHARD C.' KETTLES. JR. 

